Hello, I'm not a mycologist nor am I a tree expert, but on a recent trip to the Pacific Northwest (just outside Seattle, WA, USA), some friends and I found a very intriguing clear snot-like fungus growing in mucousy masses all over what may have been a dead or dying member of the Prunus genus of trees (see the attached pictures). If anyone has seen anything like this, I'd really like to know what it might be. We took a sample of the slime indoors and put it under a low-power microscope (maybe 10-25x), but saw no hyphae or anything like that at said magnification. It was raining quite a bit outside, and the fungus- or whatever it was- was really runny and lacked much structure. But once it had been inside for an hour or so, it congealed and dried a bit. My friend who's property we were on when we found the mysterious creature later walked around and found a small bit more of the goo growing on a tree that looked to be the same species as the one in the pictures (but nowhere else). Thanks in advance for any id help!!!
I've brought stuff like this into mycological club meetings a few times, hoping that I'd found an Exidia species or some other interesting jelly fungus, but inevitably the answer I'm given is "infected cherry tree sap" :-). So, unless you find some myco-structures under the microscope, I'm thinking it is the sap. cheers, frog
Thanks, Frog; considering it does look like it could be a cherry tree of some sort, that sounds like the most plausible explanation. I just wish it had been a creeping plasmodial slime mold (sigh). Cheers, Tiffany
I know this is an older post but did this get resolved because I found this on my deck a few days back. It rained for two days and it is still there - but not as big. It was not sticky when we poked with stick. But it held its shape. I'd love to know what this is. There is a large pine tree nearby. Is this sap?
Hi @Ispinella - The original post I am pretty confident was (possibly infected) cherry sap. Harder to be sure with yours: If you can confirm what it fell off of, that will help with ID. Looks more like sap than a jelly fungi fruiting body to me, but it is possible it could be a piece of old weathered jelly.
